Perched on a tree to the left
of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant cooling tower is an adult bald eagle
(Photo by Bill Thompson III).

WASHINGTON, DC -- "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday returned
FirstEnergy’s Davis-Besse nuclear power plant to a normal schedule of
oversight and inspection after five years of more intensive scrutiny
following its restart in 2004. The Ohio plant was closed in 2002
after inspectors found that an acid leak had nearly eaten through the
reactor’s 6-inch-thick steel cap. The corrosion at the plant near Oak
Harbor was the worst ever found at a U.S. reactor. . . Sandy Buchanan,
executive director of Ohio Citizen Action
in Cleveland, said she hopes the NRC will continue to keep a watchful
eye on the power plant.
'We had many assurances about how well things were going shortly before
the hole was found all those years ago,' Buchanan said," Gannett.

ROCKVILLE,
MD -- "A review panel has dismissed sanctions the government had taken
against former Davis-Besse engineering supervisor David Geisen.
On a 2-1 vote, it said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to
prove he intentionally deceived the commission when the plant's reactor
head nearly burst in 2001.
The decision allows Geisen to begin seeking another job in the nuclear
industry... The cover-up has been described as one of the largest in
U.S. nuclear history.
Acid that leaked through Davis-Besse's old reactor head burned a
six-inch cavity into the massive steel lid. That exposed a thin
stainless-steel liner, which started to bulge and crack. Had it burst,
radioactive steam would have formed in containment of a U.S. nuclear
vessel for the first time since the half-core meltdown of the Three
Mile Island Unit 2 reactor in Pennsylvania in 1979," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade. Published August 29th.

A test plant at Piketon,
which the U.S. Dept. of Energy is using to test the technology for
enriching uranium.

WASHINGTON, DC -- "The Obama
administration will not grant a $2 billion loan guarantee for a planned
uranium-enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio, causing the initiative to
go into financial meltdown, the company and independent sources
confirmed last night.
The U.S. Department of Energy's decision means 'we are now forced to
initiate steps to demobilize the project,' said Elizabeth Stuckle, a
spokeswoman for USEC. That's the company that is trying to build the
$3.5 billion advanced-technology plant on the same site where it ran
the Cold War-era uranium-enrichment facility that has been shuttered
since 2001... This is a separate project from the planned nuclear-power
plant that a consortium of companies, including Duke Energy, recently
announced for the Piketon site. The nuclear-power plant project could
take a decade to come to fruition," Jonathan Riskind, Columbus
Dispatch.

OAK HARBOR -- "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Monday made it
possible for former Davis-Besse engineer Andrew Siemaszko to resume his
career in the nuclear industry as early as April.
But Siemaszko - who was convicted last August of deceiving the
government about the plant's dangerous operating condition in the fall
of 2001 - would first have to get approval from his probation
officer... Siemaszko, who has maintained his innocence, was one of four
workers who prosecutors claimed were at the center of the cover-up.
Three went to trial.
But he also was one whom activists described as a whistleblower because
of his attempts to get the reactor head cleaned before it went back
into service. A federal judge denied him federal whistleblower
protection," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

June 18, 2009: Long
road to powerEnergy companies and
politicians hope to put a nuclear plant in Piketon, but approval
processes likely will move at a snail's pace

COLUMBUS -- "An impressive lineup of energy-company executives and
politicians will converge on the southern Ohio village of Piketon today
to announce plans for a multibillion-dollar nuclear power plant there.
But don't expect those same forces to reassemble soon for a
groundbreaking... Critics say other forms of alternative energy, such
as wind and solar, are better, cheaper and faster ways than nuclear to
cut down on the emissions from coal-fired plants that contribute to
global warming.
'It's a ridiculously expensive way to boil water,' said Sandy Buchanan,
director of Ohio Citizen Action, an
environmental advocacy group," Jonathan Riskind and Alan Johnson, Columbus
Dispatch.

Mar
6, 2009: Future
dim for nuclear waste repository
WASHINGTON, DC -- "President Obama’s proposed budget cuts off most
money for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, a decision that
fulfills a campaign promise and wins the president political points in
Nevada — but raises new questions about what to do with radioactive
waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants... Opponents of nuclear
power contend that the nation’s failure to find a permanent repository
for the waste is a reason to shut down nuclear reactors and forget
about building more.
Abandonment of the Yucca Mountain depository would be a blow for the
nuclear industry, which is hoping to begin work on new reactors for the
first time in 30 years," Matthew Wald, New York Times.

TOLEDO -- "Former
Davis-Besse engineer Andrew Siemaszko was sentenced Friday to three
years probation and ordered to pay $4,500 in fines for his role in the
Ottawa County nuclear plant's massive cover-up in the fall of 2001 that
government prosecutors have called one of the most significant in the
nation's nuclear history. Siemaszko was one of only two individuals
convicted. Both could have received five years in prison and been fined
$250,000 for each of the three felony deception charges they were
convicted of 10 months apart in 2008 and 2007. Ultimately, neither got
prison time. 'The only party to significantly gain was his employer,
which already has paid a very large fine,' Judge David Katz of U.S.
District Court in Toledo said before sentencing Siemaszko. FirstEnergy
Corp., the nuclear plant's owner-operator, has paid a record $33.5
million in fines to settle civil and criminal probes that were
undertaken after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was talked out of
executing an emergency shutdown order it had prepared for Davis-Besse
in the fall of 2001," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.
Published February 7.

TOLEDO -- "On Feb. 16, 2002, the
nuclear power plant called Davis–Besse on the shores of Lake Erie near
Toledo, Ohio, shut down. On inspection,
a pineapple-size section on the 6.63-inch- (16.84-centimeter-) thick
carbon steel lid that holds in the pressurized, fission-heated water in
the site's sole reactor had been entirely eaten away by boric acid
formed from a leak. The only thing standing between the escape of
nuclear steam and a possible chain of events leading to a meltdown was
an internal liner of stainless steel just three sixteenths of an inch
(0.48 centimeter) thick that had slowly bent out about an eighth of an
inch (0.32 centimeter) into the cavity due to the constant 2,200
pound-per–square-inch (155-kilogram-per-square-centimeter) pressure,"
David Biello, Scientific American.

Andrew Siemaszko and his
wife, Sandra, leave federal court. He faces up to five years in prison
and a $250,000 fine.
(The Blade/Dave Zapotosky)

TOLEDO -- "Judge David Katz of
U.S. District Court has upheld the guilty verdicts against Andrew
Siemaszko, paving the way for the last of three men to be tried for the
Davis-Besse cover-up to be sentenced Feb. 6. The judge acknowledged
that Siemaszko's conviction was 'a close case,' but said he found
'sufficient circumstantial evidence upon which a reasonable jury could
have based a finding of knowledge and intent.' Siemaszko, who lives in
Spring, Texas, was convicted in August on three of five felony charges
of deliberately misleading the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the
nuclear plant," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "[Andrew Siemaszko's] attorneys,
Washington-based Billie Garde and Chuck Boss of Maumee, yesterday said
their client should be acquitted or given a new trial because the jury
convicted him without the U.S. Department of Justice proving intent.
The defense attorneys acknowledged errors in records Siemaszko
generated or collaborated on.
But they reminded the judge that multiple revisions were made by those
higher up the FirstEnergy corporate ladder before the records were
turned over to the NRC.
'The information presented by Mr. Siemaszko was accurate to the best of
his knowledge, but he did not know how they were being altered above
him,' Ms. Garde said," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO
-- "Two proceedings will be held this week for the pair of former
Davis-Besse engineers convicted of covering up vital information about
the Ottawa County nuclear plant weeks before its old reactor head
nearly blew apart in 2002.
The first will be at 9:30 a.m. today, when the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board starts hearing whether
David Geisen should be allowed to resume work in the nuclear industry
before his five-year ban from employment in it expires in January,
2011.
On Thursday, Geisen's convicted co-conspirator, Andrew Siemaszko, will
be in a Toledo courtroom asking Judge David Katz of U.S. District Court
for an acquittal or new trial," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

OAK HARBOR -- "A pipe leak that
occurred at Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant was not considered a threat
to public health, according to a spokesman with FirstEnergy, the
plant’s owner.
Advertisement
Todd Schneider, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, said Sunday the plant was
not evacuated and will not be on shutdown, 'but officials will be
monitoring and performing testing on the site this week.'
Schneider said the 3-inch carbon steel pipe was leaking tritium, a
'slightly radioactive' substance," Leslie Bixler, Port
Clinton News Herald.

TOLEDO -- "In the end, not one
FirstEnergy bigwig was held to account personally for the near-calamity
that shut down the Davis-Besse power plant in 2002. Instead, two former
workers have now taken the fall for lying to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission about what turned out to be the worst corrosion damage ever
found on a U.S. nuclear reactor.
But, as we have pointed out before, anyone who believes that the
utility's senior managers and executives were entirely in the dark
about what the three underlings were up to is arguably as naive as
government regulators who trust utilities to police themselves.
It seems highly improbable that any of the trio charged in the
Davis-Besse case could have, or would have, acted on their own to keep
the plant operating past a scheduled shutdown without any direct or
implied nudge from higher-ups. Yet with the final verdict in the
seven-year saga now rendered against a former nuclear plant engineer,
we may never know what the bosses knew," editorial,

TOLEDO -- "Former FirstEnergy
Corp. engineer Andrew Siemaszko was convicted yesterday on three of
five counts of intentionally misleading federal regulators about the
danger at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ottawa County in 2001.
The verdicts were the final ones in a seven-year saga that has had
national implications for the nuclear industry as it plans for a
rebirth to help meet America's rising energy needs," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO -- Ohio
nuclear engineer convicted of lying about cracks in reactor,
"Siemaszko has supporters who do not believe that he is guilty as
charged. The Union of Concerned Scientists and the advocacy group Ohio
Citizen Action both say Siemaszko is innocent.
Ohio Citizen Action composed a letter for its followers to send to
government officials that says, 'The records of Mr. Siemaszko's actions
show that he was carrying out his job of cleaning the reactor head in
good faith until management brought a halt to the work. By
FirstEnergy's own admission, the root cause of the problem began in the
mid-1990s, several years before Mr. Siemaszko was even employed at the
plant,'" Environmental News Service.

TOLEDO -- "Billie Pirner Garde,
recognized by a prosecution witness and others as an attorney with a
national reputation for defending nuclear whistleblowers, broke down in
tears during closing arguments while maintaining her client's
innocence. She said Mr. Siemaszko, a native of Poland, came to the
United States during the Cold War to experience the American dream but
has had that become a nightmare for him and his family. 'He came to
this country as a dream from a communist country in 1978, where the
government doesn't have the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable
doubt,' she said. Ms. Garde said her client refused to plead to a
lesser charge because of his faith in the American justice system. 'I'm
not sure I would have been so brave,' she said," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO -- "Closing arguments
begin this morning in the criminal trial of former FirstEnergy Corp.
engineer Andrew Siemaszko, a federal case being heard in Toledo with
potential ramifications for nuclear whistleblowers nationwide.
Jury deliberations are expected to start about noon.
Mr. Siemaszko is charged with five counts of lying or withholding
information from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the operating
status of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in the fall of 2001, weeks
before its historic shutdown on Feb. 16, 2002," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO -- "The
senior-level Nuclear Regulatory Commission official who withheld a
historic 2001 shutdown order for Davis-Besse said yesterday he keeps
the Ottawa County nuclear plant's most infamous photograph in his
office as a keepsake to remind him how close northern Ohio came to
experiencing a radioactive disaster. 'It's a significant, emotional
moment for me,' the NRC's Samuel J. Collins said of the Davis-Besse
saga while discussing a photograph from the plant's 2000 outage," Tom
Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "'Let's win this war.'
Those four words became the rallying cry among FirstEnergy Corp.'s
management team seven years ago when it began fending off a Nuclear
Regulatory Commission order to shut down the Davis-Besse nuclear plant
three months earlier than the utility had wanted, said Thomas
Ballantine of the U.S. Department of Justice's environmental crimes
section.
Mr. Ballantine's statement was made at the opening of the federal trial
of Andrew Siemaszko, a former Davis-Besse engineer, who is charged with
five counts of lying to the government about plant conditions in 2001.
During his opening statement, Mr. Ballantine said that "Let's Win This
War" became the mantra at the plant," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.
Published August 9.

OAK
HARBOR-- "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday said it has
authorized Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. to generate more power at the
Davis-Besse nuclear power plant.
It's another sign the plant has made amends with the government and
come back from the troubles that nearly crippled it for good six years
ago. The authorization for a 1.6 percent increase in capacity will
allow Davis-Besse to produce enough power for about 12,000 more homes,"
Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

OAK HARBOR -- "Former
Davis-Besse engineer David Geisen has appealed his conviction on three
deception charges to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Cincinnati, according to a notice filed by his attorneys. Geisen, of
DePere, Wis., was sentenced May 1 by Judge David Katz of U.S. District
Court in Toledo to a $7,500 fine, three years' probation, four months
of house arrest, and 200 hours of community service for the convictions
decided by a jury following a monthlong trial last October. He was
acquitted of two other charges," Toledo Blade. MORE ON DAVIS-BESSE

OAK HARBOR -- "Davis-Besse's
2007 operating performance will be discussed by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission today during a meeting at the nuclear plant's energy
education center, 5501 North State Rt. 2. No major issues were
identified.
The NRC told FirstEnergy in a letter that Davis-Besse 'operated in a
manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all
cornerstone objectives.'
Only normal, baseline inspections are planned this year, the NRC said.
The meeting, scheduled for
3 p.m., is open to the public," Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO --
"The sentencing of former Davis-Besse engineer David Geisen has been
postponed to May 1. It had been set for April 17.
Geisen, of DePere, Wis., was convicted Oct. 30 in U.S. District Court
in Toledo on three of five counts of deception in a case that centered
around the roles he and two others were accused of having in a cover-up
at FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse nuclear plant nearly seven years
ago... Prosecutors allege the cover-up kept the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission from finding out that Davis-Besse’s old reactor head was
about to burst and cause radioactive steam to form, endangering
northern Ohio," Toledo Blade.

COLUMBUS -- "A proposed
distribution rate increase by FirstEnergy should be cut by at least
$300 million and a new investigation is needed to address the utility's
service reliability, according to the Office of the Ohio Consumers'
Counsel (OCC). The OCC proposes that the Public Utilities Commission of
Ohio (PUCO) order a comprehensive review of FirstEnergy reliability
practices. The review would include the determination of measures to
increase reliability and/or penalties against FirstEnergy," press
release, Ohio Consumers' Counsel.

TOLEDO -- "October’s
split-decision verdict in the conspiracy case involving former
Davis-Besse engineer David Geisen seemed to indicate the jury struggled
in reaching a consensus about his role in FirstEnergy Corp.’s cover-up,
U.S. District Judge David Katz said while addressing a federal
prosecutor in a South Florida courtroom yesterday. 'You have to admit
it would seem that by not finding Mr. Geisen guilty on two counts, the
jury was showing how close its decision was and perhaps was throwing
Mr. Geisen a bone,' Judge Katz told Thomas Ballantine, one of three
U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors who tried the month-long case in
Toledo against Geisen and his co-defendant, Rodney N. Cook, of
Millington, Tenn. Geisen was a FirstEnergy supervisor who oversaw
Davis-Besse’s old reactor head. Mr. Cook was a contractor the utility
hired to write reports it submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

OAK
HARBOR-- "Two former employees at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station
filed a lawsuit last week against the plant's owner FirstEnergy Nuclear
Operating Co. for unlawful termination. Mark Whitaker, of Marblehead,
and Timothy Camick, of Holland, were terminated last summer for
'alleged violations of work rules and policies,' according to a civil
lawsuit filed in Ottawa County. Both men were security shift
supervisors at Davis-Besse and had each filed complaints and reported
matters involving 'workplace safety and other safety concerns,' court
records show, Sandusky Register. Story posted on Feb. 19.

OAK HARBOR -- "FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse nuclear plant is making
electricity again and is expected to be back at full power within days,
the utility said yesterday... The latest restart effort began Thursday.
The plant went offline for normal refueling and maintenance Dec. 30.
FirstEnergy tried putting it back into service on Feb. 1 but never
synchronized to the grid because of excessive vibrations from the
plant's turbine generator, which had been sent to a contractor in
Chicago to be rebuilt," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO-- "Former Davis-Besse
nuclear engineer David Geisen's bid to get his conviction thrown out
will be argued in a South Florida courtroom.
Judge David Katz, of U.S. District Court in Toledo, who winters in
Florida, has scheduled a hearing for 11 a.m. March 20 in the Paul G.
Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in West Palm Beach...
Geisen, of DePere, Wis., was convicted Oct. 30 on three of five
deception charges by a jury that deliberated more than 26 hours after
hearing evidence for nearly a month.
Prosecutors claimed he was part of a FirstEnergy Corp. cover-up that
misled the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about Davis-Besse's dangerous
operating condition in the fall of 2001," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO --
"Kudos to Davis-Besse: Just yesterday, it seemed, I was in Washington
hearing Harold Denton describe the 2002 near-rupture of Davis-Besse's
old reactor head as 'the second-most important event in the history of
[U.S.] nuclear safety.'
Harold who? He was Jimmy Carter's right-hand man from the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission during the Three Mile Island saga in 1979...
FirstEnergy Corp., to its credit, is trying to make us forget about
both events with more than corporate spin," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade. Published January 13.

COLUMBUS -- "Ohio Edison
customers should be getting a decrease in distribution rates instead of
a proposed increase, a consumer watchdog agency said in testimony filed
Thursday... The company said it had not asked for an increase in
distribution rates for Ohio Edison customers since 1990 and the other
two companies since 1997. It is asking for $340 million in annual
revenue increases for its three operating companies. But the Ohio
consumers' counsel, the state's residential utility advocate, on
Thursday filed paperwork with the PUCO saying its analysis shows the
utility should decrease distribution rates for Ohio Edison and CEI and
only slightly increase rates for Toledo Edison," Betty Lin-Fisher, Akron
Beacon Journal.

OAK HARBOR --
"Radioactive coolant water seeped from a pipe in the Davis-Besse
nuclear power plant's containment area Friday morning as an old weld
was being reinforced with a metal overlay, FirstEnergy Corp. and
federal officials said yesterday.... The Union of Concerned Scientists,
a watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass., said in a briefing issued
by its Washington office yesterday that the repair at Davis-Besse could
be 'relatively simple' if the lone discovered crack turns out to be the
plant's only one. 'If not, the repairs and risk implications grow
larger,' according to the paper, written by David Lochbaum, a former
nuclear safety engineer and the group's nuclear safety project
director," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

OAK
HARBOR -- "The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant yesterday was shut down
for a scheduled refueling and to fix welds that federal regulators said
were prone to leaking... In March, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
ordered Davis-Besse and 39 other nuclear plants to fix leak-prone welds
in their reactor coolant systems by the end of 2007. Welds in those
reactors have certain metal alloys, known as Alloy 82 and Alloy 182,
that have been susceptible to stress fractures," Mike Sigov,
Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "Judge David Katz of
U.S. District Court has postponed the anticipated month-long trial of
former Davis-Besse engineer Andrew Siemaszko to Aug. 11, citing a
scheduling conflict. Mr. Siemaszko of Spring, Texas, was to go on trial
in mid-May. He is the last of three former Davis-Besse engineers to
defend themselves from government accusations that they covered up
problems at the Ottawa County nuclear plant months before its old
reactor head nearly burst in 2002. Had that happened, radioactive steam
would have formed. Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., the plant's owner and
one of the nation's largest utilities, has paid a record $33.5 million
in fines stemming from civil and criminal probes," Tom Henry,
Toledo Blade.

The radioactive waste
dumping site at Barnwell, S.C., appears to be set on turning other
states away by July. (Associated Press)

TOLEDO -- "Michigan and
Ohio are among 36 states that will have a greater buildup of
radioactive waste after July 1 if a South Carolina landfill follows
through with its plans to start turning them away... Low-level
radioactive waste runs the gamut from medical clothing to nuclear
tubing, virtually everything with radiation other than spent fuel
that's been pulled from reactor cores of nuclear plants such as
FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse in Ottawa County and DTE Energy's Fermi
2 in Monroe County," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.
Published December 16.

WASHINGTON, DC -- "In the most
serious episode involving a U.S. nuclear plant since Three Mile Island,
the Davis-Besse plant in Ohio was shut down from 2002 to 2004 after the
NRC failed to spot what it acknowledges were early signs of trouble. An
acid leak through the reactor vessel's lid left a quarter-inch-thick
steel veneer, according to NRC reports. Because emergency pumps also
were faulty, core-cooling water leaking through the ruptured lid could
have led to a meltdown. The NRC identified the leak in fall 2001 but
let the plant keep operating. An NRC Inspector General's report in 2002
found the agency's willingness to keep the plant running 'was driven in
large part by a desire to lessen the financial impact on (plant
operator FirstEnergy) that would result from an early shutdown,'" Paul
Davidson, USA Today.

TOLEDO --
"FirstEnergy Corp. has quietly dropped its $200 million insurance claim
for damage to Davis-Besse's old reactor head, offering no explanation
beyond a statement in which a spokesman said it was 'the best course of
action for the company.'
Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, with which FirstEnergy had been in
arbitration for a year, was notified Wednesday. 'The arbitration
process has stopped,' Todd Schneider, FirstEnergy spokesman, said last
night.
The claim represented less than a third of the estimated $650 million
that FirstEnergy lost between 2002 and 2004, during the time
Davis-Besse was idle," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.
Published December 8.

TOLEDO --
"Richard Hibey and Andrew Wise contend their client deserves a new
trial if he is not acquitted by Judge David Katz, who presided over the
three-week jury trial in U.S. District Court in Toledo. Their request
is explained in a 37-page brief that was posted in the court's
electronic filing system last week. It claims the government proved
Geisen was not involved in drafting and preparing the three serial
letters to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that were the basis for
his conviction," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

NORTH PERRY -- "A nuclear power
plant in northeast Ohio remained down yesterday for a second day as a
team of inspectors tried to figure out what caused an automatic
shutdown. Four Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors are assisting
the agency's two resident inspectors at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant,
according to NRC spokesman Viktoria Mitlyng. Perry plant workers are
also involved in determining a cause.
A feedwater system that pumps water to a reactor core malfunctioned and
workers had problems with two of the five backup systems, Ms. Mitlyng
said," Associated Press.

NORTH
PERRY -- "A water system problem caused an automatic shutdown of a
nuclear power plant Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the plant said. The
Perry Nuclear Power Plant, located alongside Lake Erie about 35 miles
northeast of Cleveland, shut down about 7:30 a.m. when problems with
the system that provides water to the reactor malfunctioned, said
spokeswoman Jennifer Young. Water level inside the reactor was
adequately maintained, but the plant remained off-line Wednesday
evening,” Young said," Associated Press.

TOLEDO -- "Jury selection has
been scheduled for May 12 in the U.S. Department of Justice's case
against Andrew Siemaszko, the last engineer of an indicted trio
awaiting trial in connection with the Davis-Besse coverup. Judge David
Katz of U.S. District Court in Toledo has called for the trial to begin
seven days later, on May 19. Like the recently concluded trial
involving engineers David Geisen and Rodney N. Cook, Mr. Siemaszko's is
expected to last a month," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

COLUMBUS
-- "The debate over how Ohio will control your electric bill for years
to come is fueled by green.
The state's three largest power companies have doled out a quarter of a
million dollars in campaign contributions to legislators and state
political funds this year even though nobody's up for election...
'We participate in the political process, as a lot of companies do, and
particularly related to issues that are important to our company and
our shareholders and customers and employees,' said Ellen Raines,
FirstEnergy's public-relations director. 'The energy policy in Ohio is
certainly one of those issues,'" Mark Rollenhagen,
Cleveland Plain Dealer. Published
November 4.

TOLEDO -- "The jury deliberated
more than 26 hours, starting last Wednesday night, before the verdicts
were read about 2 p.m. yesterday. Judge David Katz, who presided over
the trial, allowed Geisen to remain free on earlier conditions set in
his bond. The jury met with prosecutors and defense attorneys for more
than an hour after the verdict. Mr. Cook’s chief attorney, John Conroy,
was the only one who shed any light on the discussion, explaining that
jurors were confounded. 'They really did not accept the notion that the
only [potentially] guilty people were the ones on trial,' Mr. Conroy
said. They were quite clear about that,'" Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO -- "A federal jury in
Toledo trying to decide if two former Davis-Besse engineers lied about
the Ottawa County nuclear plant's dangerous operating status in 2001
yesterday was encouraged by the presiding judge to break its apparent
stalemate. But even with prodding by U.S. District Judge David Katz,
the jury went a third day without reaching a verdict. It's to resume
deliberations today. David Geisen of DePere, Wis., and Rodney N. Cook
of Millington, Tenn., are facing criminal charges for making false
statements to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Tom Henry,
Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "A second day of
deliberations produced no verdict in the Davis-Besse criminal trial in
U.S. District Court in Toledo, a case viewed by some as having
potential ramifications for the nuclear industry’s work force. The jury
is to reconvene Monday.
It is weighing evidence of what former engineers David Geisen and
Rodney N. Cook knew about the Ottawa County nuclear plant’s old reactor
head in the fall of 2001. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission suspected
something was wrong at the time, but FirstEnergy Corp. talked the
agency out of serving the nation’s first mandatory shutdown order since
1987," Toledo Blade.

COLUMBUS -- "A new plan to
set future electric rates in the state, keeping northern Ohio’s high
rates, was unveiled yesterday in the Ohio Senate.
The plan, supported by Democratic Gov. Ted Stickland and Ohio Senate
Republicans, would lock in the rates customers are paying for the
Davis-Besse nuclear power plant and other utility investments in
power-generating stations that otherwise would expire next year," Jim
Provance, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "Defense attorneys said
the government's conspiracy theory is implausible. Neither defendant
had anything to gain from keeping Davis-Besse online, they said.
Richard Hibey, one of Mr. Geisen's attorneys, accused the government of
"importing all of this hindsight" and trying to present it as fact. The
defendants followed procedures that were in effect at the time and
their actions "should not be perverted into a lie, a cover-up, a covert
act," he said. 'Why would he abandon his responsibility to science, his
family, his employer, and the people [of Ohio] simply to keep
Davis-Besse [online] another 45 days?' Mr. Hibey asked," Tom Henry,
Toledo Blade.MORE ON FIRSTENERGY

TOLEDO -- " In yesterday's
concluding testimony, a FirstEnergy supervisor testified that he
immediately saw evidence of a cover-up. Randy Rossomme, who now works
in the utility's headquarters, was a quality-assurance supervisor at
FirstEnergy's twin-reactor Beaver Valley nuclear complex in western
Pennsylvania when the damage to Davis-Besse's reactor head was
discovered in March, 2002. He said he was taken aback by documents he
examined weeks later after the utility's nuclear subsidiary named him
to an internal 'root cause' inspection team at Davis-Besse. 'My first
gut response was they lied - they, being Davis-Besse,' Mr. Rossomme
told the jury," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "The government won't
attempt to make former Davis-Besse engineer Andrew Siemaszko testify
against his co-defendants during their trial in federal court in
Toledo... Mr. Siemaszko was in charge of cleaning and inspecting
Davis-Besse's old reactor head during the Ottawa County nuclear plant's
2000 refueling outage, the last one before the dangerous cavity at the
heart of the case was found in early 2002," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO
-- "Mr. Geisen said his FirstEnergy colleagues thrust him into making a
presentation before the NRC on short notice on Nov. 8, 2001. He wasn't
prepared. He showed video footage of reactor-head inspections from 1996
and 1998 that he hadn't previewed. He didn't know what he was looking
at, and the quality of the footage was so bad the NRC didn't bother
looking at the tape from 2000 that Mr. Siemaszko had produced, he said.
'I was extremely frustrated because I couldn't answer the questions
they were asking. I felt stupid. I was mad at my teammates because I
felt they sent me into something unprepared,' Mr. Geisen said.
FirstEnergy sent Mr. Siemaszko out to the NRC's headquarters about five
weeks later, but only after an internal debate because Mr. Siemaszko's
eastern European accent can be hard to understand, Mr. Geisen said,"
Tom Henry Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "The government
yesterday rested its case against two former Davis-Besse workers
accused of covering up information about the Ottawa County nuclear
plant's dangerous condition in the fall of 2001, when its old reactor
head was on the verge of bursting and allowing radioactive steam to
form.
David Geisen of Wisconsin and Rodney N. Cook of Tennessee are both
charged with lying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as is Andrew
Siemaszko of Texas. All three face up to five years in prison and
separate $250,000 fines if convicted," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO -- "A former Davis-Besse
engineering director yesterday revealed he was an early target of the
government’s investigation of trouble at the Ottawa County nuclear
plant in the fall of 2001 — not the two utility engineers and outside
contractor below him who were indicted... Mr. Moffitt said he met with
federal prosecutors at least twice in 2005 and agreed to cooperate even
though they didn’t give him full immunity. He said they agreed not to
use information he provided against him, but wouldn’t rule out him
being indicted. He wasn’t. David Geisen, Rodney N. Cook, and Andrew
Siemaszko were," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "The government's case
against three former Davis-Besse engineers took a bizarre twist at the
end of yesterday's session in U.S. District Court when an angry defense
attorney said his client, who is not on trial yet, may be forced to
testify against the other two defendants. Chuck Boss of Maumee told
Judge David Katz he fears his client, Andrew Siemaszko, now of Texas,
will incriminate himself or be duped into committing perjury by Justice
Department prosecutors if they are allowed to subpoena him as a witness
in the trial of a former co-worker, David Geisen, now of Wisconsin, and
Tennessee contractor Rodney N. Cook," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "One of the key
witnesses in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against three former
Davis-Besse engineers is expected to testify today about the
government's theory that he and the trio were part of a coverup that
jeopardized northern Ohio's safety in the fall of 2001. Prasoon Goyal,
61, of Toledo, who took the stand late yesterday, is a former senior
design engineer who avoided prosecution by agreeing to cooperate with
the Justice Department in its case against the other three," Tom Henry,
Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO --
"A quick Davis-Besse recap: Six months before the plant's historic
shutdown on Feb. 16, 2002 - long before news broke about the horrible
state of its old reactor head - FirstEnergy Corp. put in an order for a
new head, a $200 million part. That had never been done before in U.S.
nuclear history. The utility said it was tired of worrying about
cracked reactor-head nozzles, the original focus. It said it was just
as blown away, bad pun intended, as everyone about the much more
serious issue of acid burning through all but a fraction of the lid and
nearly allowing radioactive steam to form," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO -- "Northwest Ohio did
more than dodge a bullet when the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant was
shut down in 2002, it avoided a potential nuclear disaster. And the
best thing that could come out of the criminal trials of three former
Davis-Besse workers would be a clearer picture of whether their bosses
should have been sitting with them at the defense table. Former
FirstEnergy employee David Geisen and contractor Rodney Cook are on
trial in U.S. District Court in Toledo. They are accused of lying to
the government in documents used by Toledo Edison's parent firm to
argue against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission pulling the plug on the
Ottawa County plant on Dec. 31, 2001, to fix a corroded reactor head,"
editorial, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "Jurors spent hours
yesterday in U.S. District Court in Toledo reviewing footage of boric
acid crystals that encrusted Davis-Besse's old reactor head as far back
as 1996. Government prosecutors are using the evidence to bolster their
claim that FirstEnergy Corp. engineers lied in maintenance documents
the utility submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the fall
of 2001. The trial, which began Monday, is the first of two in which
former engineers face up to five years in prison and separate $250,000
fines if convicted of lying to the government," Tom Henry,
Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "Attorneys yesterday spent nearly six
hours grilling a Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffer who fought to
get Davis-Besse shut down in the fall of 2001 as a safeguard for
northern Ohio, only to have his senior management override the
recommendation he and his colleagues made so that FirstEnergy Corp.
would not take a financial hit. Allen Hiser, now chief of the NRC's
steam generator, tube integrity, and chemical engineering branch, said
he wasn't buying FirstEnergy's assertion that Davis-Besse's old reactor
head was properly cleaned and inspected during the plant's previous
refueling outage in 2000," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "Opening arguments began yesterday in
the first of two criminal trials involving former Davis-Besse workers
with federal prosecutors accusing defendants David Geisen and Rodney N.
Cook of being liars who were out to 'trick, scheme, or otherwise
mislead' the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the degree to which
acid leaked from the plant’s nuclear reactor in the fall of 2001...
Defense attorneys countered by saying their defendants are being used
as scapegoats. 'Ladies and gentlemen, David Geisen is here today
because the NRC was embarrassed by what happened at Davis-Besse,' said
one of Mr. Geisen’s attorneys, Andrew Wise. 'This was not an
investigation to figure out what happened, but who we can blame,'" Tom
Henry, Toledo Blade.

CLEVELAND -- "They showed up to fight over your
electric bill. Nearly 100 of them, all with connections to Ohio
lawmakers, some wielding Blackberrys, talking points, press releases
and even an opinion poll.
So many came that the meeting - the first hearing on Gov. Ted
Strickland's energy plan - was delayed so it could be moved to a larger
room in the Statehouse.
Utility companies, manufacturers, unions, farmers and environmentalists
hastened their representatives to Wednesday's meeting because
Strickland's energy plan, introduced in the Ohio Senate, has
unprecedented ramifications for Ohio consumers, the economy and the
environment," Mark Naymik, Cleveland Plain Dealer.

David Geisen, Rodney
Cook and Andrew Siemaszko face up to five years in prison and $250,000
in fines if convicted.

TOLEDO -- "Six years later, it
remains an unsettling question: How much was covered up about the
Davis-Besse nuclear plant in the fall of 2001? Hadn't the nuclear
industry learned its lesson from the panic that ensued in March, 1979,
when half of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor core melted near
Harrisburg, Pa.? And where was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the
government agency that's supposed to protect the public? ...Sandy
Buchanan, Ohio Citizen Action executive
director, said FirstEnergy top executives should be held accountable
for the cover-up," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

AKRON --
"How important are electric rates to a business? It would take a day to
count the ways. More than 200 people, from business owners and
executives to economists and engineers, attended the second Northern
Ohio Energy Management Conference at the John S. Knight Convention
Center in Akron on Wednesday... But the common thread throughout the
event was the question of what will happen to electric rates on Jan. 1,
2009. That's when rate plans for three of Ohio's four investor-owned
utilities including Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. are set to expire,"
Paula Schleis, Akron Beacon Journal.

COLUMBUS -- "The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday struck down FirstEnergy
Corp.'s plan to defer up to $150 million a year in increased fuel and
other costs for three years and then recoup those costs from customers
over 25 years, beginning in 2009. In a 6-1 decision, the court said it
was illegal under Ohio's 1999 electric deregulation law for the Akron
parent company of Toledo Edison to put off billing for higher costs for
fuel, tree-trimming, and storm damage associated with generating
electricity from 2006 through 2008 and then later raise the bills for
customers on the distribution from 2009 through 2034 to make up for
it,'" Jim Provance, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "Governor Ted
Strickland has set a high bar for what should be his next major
legislative initiative: re-regulating the electric business in Ohio.
We use the term 're-regulating' because it is glaringly obvious that
the state’s nearly decade-long experiment with electric deregulation
has been a colossal failure and must be corrected," editorial, Toledo
Blade.

COLUMBUS
-- "Mr. Strickland is expected to begin the debate any day now as Ohio
faces a deadline of Jan. 1, 2009, the date that, absent any legislative
action, would send Ohio consumers into an electricity market where
competition hasn't developed. Rather than the promised bargains,
consumers in other states like Maryland and Illinois who got to the
market early found sticker shock.
'If we do nothing, I think we'll have a chaotic, intolerable set of
circumstances that will lead to a lack of predictability, most likely
an exploding cost to consumers and industrial users of electricity,'
Mr. Strickland said. 'It will be a very volatile situation that
introduces unaccept-able uncertainty into our state's economy,'" Jim
Provance, Toledo Blade.

COLUMBUS -- "With Gov. Ted Strickland about to release a new energy
plan, a sudden and strong consensus has formed in the state: Relaxing
government controls on electric companies was a bad idea...
At most, supporters of deregulation described it as one factor among
many that led to events like the Northeast blackout or the rolling
California brownouts. They felt it premature, at least publicly, to say
the trend toward relaxed regulation that swept the country in the 1990s
was the root cause of the turmoil.
But with interim rate stabilization plans set to expire in Ohio at the
end of 2008, interest groups on all sides appear to have agreed that
deregulation was a failure and should be replaced. Contemporary
thinking is that competition and low rates never materialized, and
won't without government helping control rates, manage demand and urge
efficiency," Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press.

COLUMBUS -- "For Schriber,
there's no question. Rate-stabilization plans saved Ohioans money,
especially compared with other states in similar situations, he said...
But Janine Migden-Ostrander, the Ohio consumers' counsel, isn't willing
to say the rate plans saved Ohioans money. The downside to the
rate-stabilization plans was that utilities didn't have to open their
books in order to levy surcharges, she said. 'We don't have a chance to
look at things in the depth that we think is appropriate," she said.
"The ends do not justify the means when the process is not
appropriate,'" Paul Wilson, Columbus Dispatch.

OAK HARBOR -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has effectively let
FirstEnergy Corp. off with a warning for waiting three months before
producing contradictory information the utility had gathered about the
near-rupture of Davis-Besse’s reactor head in 2002. The utility could
have lost its operating licenses for Davis-Besse, Perry nuclear plant
east of Cleveland, and its twin-reactor nuclear complex in western
Pennsylvania over the ordeal, because the regulatory agency saw
potential for national safety implications in suppressed data that two
FirstEnergy consultants had compiled," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

OAK HARBOR -- "Davis-Besse last
night got kudos for its 2006 operating performance. But federal
regulators kept mum about the status of possible sanctions against
FirstEnergy Corp. for seeking a $200 million insurance payment for the
plant's old reactor head that nearly blew apart in 2002. The NRC is
expected to spend at least two more weeks reviewing FirstEnergy's
rationale for the insurance claim, Viktoria Mitlyng, an agency
spokesman, said," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

NEW YORK -- "How many mishaps have occurred over the years -- and is
the rate getting better or worse? It's hard to know. That's because
every day, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency deletes from
its Web site any rated incident that's more than six months old. The
agency says it doesn't want to penalize more-forthcoming countries by
making it look like they have poor safety records... The most serious
nuclear plant incident in the U.S. in recent years occurred at the
Davis-Besse plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio, in 2002. There, a pineapple-size
cavity, caused by extensive corrosion, was found in the lid of the
reactor pressure vessel, which houses the fuel core," Steve Stecklow, Wall
Street Journal.

ROCKVILLE, MD -- "Nuclear
Regulatory Commission officials mildly rebuked FirstEnergy Corp.
officials on Wednesday for failing to immediately give them a
consultant's report that concluded that a dangerous corrosion problem
at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant developed over months instead of
years. The regulatory panel spent three hours grilling top FirstEnergy
Nuclear Operating Co. officials. Its questioning didn't address whether
it was proper for the Akron-based utility to provide the NRC with one
account of problems at the Davis-Besse plant while providing a
different version to its insurance company in an effort to collect $200
million," Sabrina Eaton, Cleveland Plain Dealer.

TOLEDO -- "Most irritating is
FirstEnergy's claim that it has never really altered its position
because it always accepted responsibility for the hole. Initially
FirstEnergy accepted blame for failing to do inspections that would
have found the hole. But for the insurance case, FirstEnergy seemed to
claim that it was blameless, even if it was responsible. We don't buy
that hair-splitting. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission should
rake FirstEnergy over the coals for its flip-flop-flip. Yanking the
company's nuclear operating license might not be so bad. Who knows what
FirstEnergy will do or say anymore on any given day about the operation
of its nuclear reactors?," editorial, Lorain Morning Journal
.

TOLEDO -- "Penitent and humbled,
FirstEnergy Corp. says its own consultants were wrong to argue the
utility couldn't have prevented a rust hole that crippled the
Davis-Besse nuclear reactor five years ago. In a 63-page sworn document
that amounts to an extended apology, the Akron-based utility told the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week that it could not endorse many
of the arguments its paid consultants made last December in reports
meant to help FirstEnergy collect a $200 million insurance claim for
the extensive Davis-Besse damage," John Funk and John Mangels, Cleveland
Plain Dealer.

TOLEDO -- "The argument
FirstEnergy Corp. is making to its insurer -- that the utility did
nothing to intentionally cause corrosion damage at its Davis-Besse
nuclear plant -- contradicts the official findings of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's investigation into the rust fiasco. The
disparity between the NRC's conclusions about FirstEnergy's culpability
at Davis-Besse and the version FirstEnergy's consultant is telling in
an insurance feud already has landed the utility in hot water with
nuclear regulators," John Mangels, Cleveland Plain Dealer.

TOLEDO -- "FirstEnergy Corp. may not be trying
to rewrite the history of the 2002 near-catastrophe at the Davis-Besse
nuclear power plant, but a whole lot of spinning is going on.
FirstEnergy, parent of Toledo Edison, paid $33.5 million in federal
fines after it neglected to take care of corrosion from leaking acid,
which had eaten most of the way through Davis-Besse's reactor lid over
a period of years... Now, seeking to recoup $200 million from its
insurer, the utility has drummed up consultants' reports claiming that
the bulk of the corrosion occurred in a matter of a few weeks and was
pretty much unavoidable," Editorial, Toledo Blade.

SHIPPINGPORT, PA -- "Susan Bird
said she blames air pollution from the nearby Bruce Mansfield Power
Plant in Shippingport, Beaver County, for her two younger sons'
neurological disorders, including one boy's autism. Ralph Hysong, who
also lives one mile from the plant, said he feels good only when he
travels outside Beaver County. 'We no longer grow a garden or have
fruit trees, especially after last year's major upset that spewed grimy
ash for several miles,' he said," David Templeton, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette.

Acid eroded a reactor
head at the Davis-Besse plant so much that the plant was shut down in
2002.

TOLEDO -- "FirstEnergy has a lot
of explaining to do. And it has too many explanations. The company
apparently is trying to peddle a new story to its insurance company
about the pineapple-size rust hole found in the steel lid of the
reactor at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant. In this version, the cavity
occurred in four months - so swiftly that poor FirstEnergy should be
let off the hook. If the insurance company swallows this tale, the
utility could get $200 million to compensate for its losses. But
selling such a tall tale should be a tall order. Let's unfurl the long
public record," editorial, Cleveland Plain Dealer .

TOLEDO -- "A 661-page report that
FirstEnergy submitted to its insurance company in hopes of recouping
$200 million for the near-rupture of Davis-Besse's old reactor head in
2002 is being viewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's enforcement
office "with skepticism," according to a document filed in federal
court late yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice... The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission said it is contemplating a range of enforcement
actions that could include revoking the operating licenses that
FirstEnergy holds for its Davis-Besse plant east of Toledo, its Perry
nuclear plant east of Cleveland, and its twin-reactor Beaver Valley
complex west of Pittsburgh," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "The future of
FirstEnergy Corp.'s nuclear operating company could depend on how
firmly the utility continues to stand behind a pair of reports that
suggests the near-rupture of Davis-Besse's old reactor head in 2002 was
a fluke... It concluded most of Davis-Besse's old head deteriorated
from leaky reactor acid in the final three weeks before the plant's
historic two-year outage began on Feb. 16, 2002, in contrast to
government research - which FirstEnergy had never disputed - that the
problem took years to unfold," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

WASHINGTON -- "Federal regulators
are demanding to know why FirstEnergy Corp. no longer considers itself
to blame for a rust hole that nearly caused a catastrophic accident at
the Davis-Besse nuclear reactor five years ago... If the NRC isn't
satisfied with FirstEnergy's answers, the punishment could be as severe
as revoking the utility's licenses to operate Davis-Besse and its two
other nuclear plants -- the Perry reactor near Painesville and the
Beaver Valley facility in western Pennsylvania. Other options include
suspending or restricting those licenses," John Mangels, Cleveland
Plain Dealer.

WASHINGTON -- "FirstEnergy Corp.
could face sanctions by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for
attempting to process a $200 million insurance claim with a pair of
reports that contradicts what the company previously said regarding the
near-rupture of Davis-Besse's old reactor head in 2002... The NRC,
consequently, has issued a 'Demand for Information,' which compels
FirstEnergy to answer key questions under oath. It faces more legal
action if it is caught misleading the government or providing
incomplete information," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

CLEVELAND
-- "At the time, the utility paid $33.5 million in criminal and civil
fines to acknowledge its culpability for failing to stop the corrosion
and for misleading government regulators that the deteriorating lid on
the Toledo-area reactor was OK. Now, FirstEnergy is arguing it wasn't
negligent at Davis-Besse. The utility bases its drastic change of heart
on a new analysis it paid for in its attempt to win a $200 million
insurance dispute. FirstEnergy's retooled version of events is that
corrosion ate through the steel lid so quickly -- in four months, not
the previously accepted four years -- that normal biennial inspections
couldn't have caught it," John Mangels and John Funk, Cleveland
Plain Dealer.

TOLEDO -- "The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission apparently is not going to give U.S. District Court Judge
David Katz a straight answer about a controversial 661-page report
prepared by two FirstEnergy Corp. consultants. The report could be used
to absolve the utility of liability for the near-rupture of
Davis-Besse's old reactor head in 2002 and help the company process a
$200 million insurance claim. The report, prepared by Exponent Failure
Analysis Association of Menlo, Calif., and Altran Solutions Corp. of
Boston, has huge legal implications for the government's case against
two former Davis-Besse workers and a former contractor who have been
indicted on charges of misleading the NRC," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission yesterday affirmed that Davis-Besse and 68 other nuclear
plants will be allowed to continue normal operations while the
government agency assesses a controversial 661-page report that
FirstEnergy Corp. is using in hopes of processing a $200 million
insurance claim. The document purports that most of the damage to
Davis-Besse's old reactor head was the result of accelerated corrosion
during the last three weeks before the plant was shut down for two
years on Feb. 16, 2002, contrary to what the NRC itself has said.
Agency officials previously attributed the plant's dangerous condition
to a pattern of utility negligence over years," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "A federal judge. A
congressman. And now one of the nuclear industry's most notorious
watchdog groups. All three want to know this: Why has the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission failed to either dismiss or endorse a
controversial 661-page report about the near-rupture of Davis-Besse's
old reactor head in 2002? The document, prepared by FirstEnergy Corp.
consultants, could absolve the utility of negligence accusations so it
can proceed with a $200 million insurance claim," Tom Henry, Toledo
Blade.

CLEVELAND -- "If the rust hole
that took the Davis-Besse nuclear reactor to the brink of disaster five
years ago grew as fast as the utility's consultants now believe, the
nation's nuclear fleet could be just as vulnerable, a watchdog group
said Monday. But if the new 700-page engineering consultants' corrosion
report commissioned by plant owner FirstEnergy Corp. is just a bid to
collect on insurance from the rust damage, then the Akron utility
should lose its nuclear operating license, the Union of Concerned
Scientists said," John Funk and John Mangels, Cleveland
Plain Dealer.

TOLEDO
-- " FirstEnergy Corp.'s attempt to recoup $200 million from an
insurance policy has caused a four-month delay in the criminal
prosecution of three workers formerly associated with the utility's
Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ottawa County. U.S. District Court Judge
David Katz said at a hearing yesterday that he had no choice but to
postpone the trial of Andrew Siemaszko to Sept. 10 and that of his two
co-defendants, David Geisen and Rodney N. Cook, to Oct. 9 because of
assertions made in a 661-page report by two FirstEnergy consultants,"
Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

CLEVELAND -- "The Davis-Besse
nuclear reactor near Toledo probably was closer than anyone thought to
catastrophic failure when workers found extensive corrosion of the
reactor's lid in February 2002, according to a new study. A report
commissioned by plant owner FirstEnergy Corp. for a pending insurance
claim concludes that a reactor coolant leak ate through the 6½-inch
steel lid - leaving a thin stainless-steel liner - in only a few weeks
in the fall of 2001, even as the Akron-based utility fought regulators'
calls for a shutdown to inspect for leaks," John Funk, Cleveland
Plain Dealer.

TOLEDO -- "Three former Davis-Besse
workers blamed by federal prosecutors for one of the nuclear industry's
biggest coverups have until April 9 to negotiate plea deals... The trio
- former FirstEnergy Corp. engineers Andrew Siemaszko and David Geisen,
plus outside contractor Rodney N. Cook - are accused of lying to the
government about the plant's dangerous condition in the fall of 2001.
They face five years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted," Toledo
Blade.

TOLEDO
-- "Forty of America's 103 nuclear plants, including FirstEnergy
Corp.'s Davis-Besse station in Ottawa County, will be required by the
end of 2007 to fix welds in their reactor coolant systems that are
prone to leaking, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday.
Welds in those reactors have certain metal alloy materials, known as
Alloy 82 and Alloy 182, that have been susceptible to stress fractures,"
Toledo Blade.

TOLEDO -- "A federal judge in
Toledo yesterday ordered two trials in the criminal case against a pair
of former Davis-Besse engineers and an outside contractor indicted in
2006 on charges of lying to the government about the plant’s dangerous
condition in the fall of 2001. U.S. District Court Judge David Katz
agreed with the defendants that they can’t get a fair trial if all
three are tried at once. Defendant Andrew Siemaszko has made statements
against the other two defendants, David Geisen and Rodney N. Cook, and
vice versa," Toledo Blade. Article originally published March
10, 2007.

TOLEDO --
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission - a federal agency long accused of
being too soft on the nuclear industry - is deliberating whether to
back down from the No. 1 stipulation it gave FirstEnergy Corp. to
resume operation of its Davis-Besse nuclear plant in March, 2004:
Bringing in outside evaluators once a year... 'It's unbelievable the
company would make that request, and it's just as unbelievable the NRC
would even consider it,' said David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer
for the Union of Concerned Scientists and a former nuclear industry
employee," Tom Henry, Toledo Blade.

AKRON -- "For once, Davis-Besse
isn't FirstEnergy Corp.'s headache. Yesterday the beleaguered Ottawa
County nuclear plant shone as the star of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating
Co. during a 3 1/2-hour meeting of utility executives and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. NRC officials heard how outside evaluators, many
hired with the government agency's approval, have documented
improvements in both Davis-Besse's overall worker morale as well as the
performance of its engineers and operators," Tom Henry,
Toledo Blade.

WASHINGTON,
D.C. -- "Mr. Siemaszko, Mr. Geisen, and Mr. Cook are accused of
jeopardizing northern Ohio's safety by lying about Davis-Besse's old
reactor head when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was debating
whether the plant was too dangerous to keep operating in the fall of
2001... The trio is named in a criminal indictment . The government
fined FirstEnergy Corp. $28 million - the largest fine in U.S. nuclear
history - for its corporate role in covering up evidence," Tom Henry,
Toledo Blade.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "Mr.
Siemaszko has been held up as a whistle-blower by the Union of
Concerned Scientists and Ohio Citizen Action.
Both groups maintain that he is being punished for trying to shed light
on Davis-Besse's problems. In September, Mr. Siemaszko sued FirstEnergy
for wrongful termination and breach of contract in Ottawa County
Commons Pleas Court. That case also is pending," Tom Henry,
Toledo Blade.